Work

Tailoring Charge-Transfer at Metal–Organic Interfaces Using Designer Shockley Surface States

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Metal–organic interfaces determine critical processes in organic electronic devices. The frontier molecular orbitals (highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital, HOMO and LUMO) are crucial in determining charge-injection and charge-collection processes into and from the organic semiconductor films. Here we show that we are able to tune the interfacial electronic structure of a strongly interacting interfacial system formed by adsorption of the electron acceptor 1,4,5,8,9,11-hexaazatriphenylenehexacarbonitrile (HATCN, C 18 N 12 ) on Ag thin films on Cu(111). The thickness-dependent Shockley surface state emerging on this layered metallic system couples to the LUMO, which allows precise control over the energetic position and filling of the charge-transfer interface state relative to the Fermi level ( E F ). Our ability to tune the interfacial electronic structure while maintaining the structure of the molecular film represents an important step toward designing organic semiconductor interfaces.

Source: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5c00517

Authors: Anubhab Chakraborty, Oliver L.A. Monti

Institution: University of Arizona

Language: English

Topic: Organic Electronics and Photovoltaics

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: University of Arizona, Division of Chemistry

Award: G5779811785